'Wolverine' Reviews: The Best Superhero Film Of The Summer

"The Wolverine" claws into theaters Friday with Hugh Jackman
reprising his role as Logan for the sixth time.

In a summer that felt so overloaded with one big-budget movie
after another week in and week out, it would be easy for James
Mangold's ("3:10 to Yuma," "Walk the Line") Wolverine film to get
lost among the bigger superheroes.

It also felt easy to write off after 2009's "X-Men Origins:
Wolverine" film. (The movie did well at the box-office, but it's no secret it
didn't sit well with fans.)

However, don't count this one out. It sounds like Jackman's
return to theaters is a must-see.

“'The Wolverine' comes close to being a low-key character reboot,
and along the way delivers a solid, popcorn-flavored
action-adventure that should delight genre fans, as well as
admirers of Jackman’s alarmingly muscled physique."

"Not only does it distance itself from the critically mauled
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, dropping the "X-Men" from the
title frees Mangold from many of the constraints of sequel-making
and prevents the scattered focus that would accompany a
multimutant world."

"Mangold uses the occasion to give a distinctly Japanese twist to
the tried-and-true battle-atop-a-speeding-train -- in this case,
a bullet train -- hurtling along at 300 miles per hour. It’s a
bravura heart-in-mouth sequence, expertly staged, and there’s
plenty more goring and slashing where that came
from."

"By now, we've all seen so many beat-downs atop locomotives that
they've become numbingly similar. But the one in The
Wolverine is so frantic and adrenalized (not to mention the
only part of the film that takes advantage of 3-D) that the
familiar becomes new again."

"Thirteen years after his mutant debut in Bryan Singer’s terrific
X-Men, Jackman, also a producer here, owns the Wolverine
character. The charismatic Aussie has added some martial arts
moves to his character’s slice-and-dice repertoire, is buffer
than ever and shows no sign of flagging."

"While it's definitely a more entertaining and far deeper film
than the last Wolverine outing, it still falls short of the top
tier of Marvel tentpoles like the fizzy Iron Man and Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man."